Here’s how many fewer AIDS patients would be treated after sequestration

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Members of Congress have left Washington without having made a deal to avoid the deep across-the-board spending cuts to federal agencies slated to begin March 1, and agency heads are already lamenting the potential damage to both foreign and domestic programs.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said in a letter to Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, that the reductions would “roll back border security, increase wait times at ports of entry and airports, and require furloughs of up to 14 days for law enforcement personnel, among a host of other consequences,” as the Washington Post’s Josh Hicks reported.

And as my colleague Lisa Rein reported, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said in a letter to Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, that sequestration, which would cut $2.6 billion from State Department programs, would “seriously impair our ability to execute our vital missions of national security, diplomacy and development.”